Ex-gov. Fortuño joins DC-based IRI’s advisory council

WASHINGTON — Former Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuño will advise the International Republican Institute (IRI) on global political issues, the Washington-based nonprofit announced this week.

The 55-year-old Fortuño joins a diverse group of luminaries and retired world leaders from Australia, Colombia, Ghana, Slovakia and Timor-Leste on the IRI’s newly established International Advisory Council “at a time when individual freedoms are being challenged in so many places,” the think tank said in a press release.

Fortuño, a pro-statehood politician who led the island from 2009 to 2013, was defeated in his 2012 re-election bid by the current governor, Alejandro García-Padilla of the Popular Democratic Party.

Fortuño, a corporate finance and real-estate lawyer by profession, became the first Republican to be elected governor of Puerto Rico since 1969, and the second Republican ever to win election as the island’s resident commissioner in Washington — a position he held from 2005 to 2009.

He told NIMB that despite its current economic issues, Puerto Rico’s consistently high voter turnout — “it’s always above 70 percent and at times close to 80 percent” — sets an example for other democracies where electoral participation is much lower.

“The preservation and defense of freedom and the promotion of democratic values around the world is ingrained in our nation,” he said in a phone interview from San Juan. “It’s really an honor to be able to help guarantee that the people’s will in other parts of the world are not just promoted but protected as well. To the extent I can contribute to IRI’s efforts is something I cherish.”

In May 2014, Fortuño led IRI’s delegation to monitor a fractious presidential election in Panama. Opposition leader Juan Carlos Varela won that contest with nearly 40 percent of the vote, replacing billionaire businessman Ricardo Martinelli. On Monday, Panama’s Supreme Court ordered the arrest of Martinelli, who is wanted on spying and corruption charges, and is believed to be living in Miami.

Fortuño said he’s particularly interested in promoting democracy throughout Latin America and the Caribbean; in the past, IRI has also monitored elections in half a dozen regional hotspots including Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Founded in 1983, the IRI is a nonpartisan organization that helps political parties become more issue-based and responsive; it also works to boost the role of marginalized groups in the political process, such as women and young people. As such, the IRI promotes democracy worldwide — often with its nonprofit counterpart, the National Democratic Institute.

Fortuño, who chaired the Congressional Hispanic Conference during the 110th Congress, is one of several prominent Latinos on the new council. Others include former Sen. Mel Martínez (R-Florida), a Cuban-American who was also U.S. secretary of housing and urban development, and Mexican-American attorney Anna Escobedo Cabral, 56, who served from 2005 to 2009 as the 42nd treasurer of the United States.